The invention is related to the field of optical networks, and in particular to a novel technique for reserving at least one wavelength explicitly for security, thus allowing for easy encoding and decoding in an optical network.
Communication systems have become an important portion of today's electronic society. Generally speaking, these networks and systems provide the ability for vast amounts of information to be communicated as desired and/or necessary. As is well known, examples of these communication systems include the internet, Ethernet systems, networks within contained systems (automobiles, aircraft, etc.), home networks, and wireless networks. Further, cellular telephone, 20 WiFi, SatCom, IEEE 802.11, etc., systems are also considered to be other types of a communication network.
Fiber optic communication is widely utilized in various systems due to the well known advantages of optical communication. That said, optical communication networks and systems are continuously evolving as the technology becomes more and more advanced. The further development of optical components allows for new applications and options involving optical signals. System designers simply have more tools at their disposal, thus giving them more options.
Wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) optical transmission technology is on the rise as a solution for satisfying remarkable increase of demand for high transmission capacity. The WDM optical transmission technology can simultaneously transmit several wavelength channels in one optical fiber. For example, when one wavelength channel has transmission speed of 10 Gb/s and 50 wavelengths are simultaneously transmitted, the WDM optical transmission technology can have transmission speed of 500 Gb/s, and thus the WDM optical transmission technology is very effective in large capacity transmission.
In an optical network, which uses the WDM optical transmission technology, a wavelength channel needs to be added or dropped in a network node in order to increase efficiency and variability of the optical network. A predetermined wavelength channel can be added/dropped in a predetermined node by using a fixed optical add drop multiplexer (F-OADM) technology. A reconfigurable optical add drop multiplexer (ROADM) technology is required for efficiency of the optical network, and also in order to economically use network resources. When the ROADM technology is used, a predetermined channel can be added/dropped in a predetermined node, and thus an efficient network operation is possible.
However, there lacks an integratable security platform that allows for easy encoding and decoding of security information across different protocols without causing unduly delays and lowering of performance in an optical network.